Posts Tagged ‘social media’

This is an adaptation of a talk I gave earlier this year at DistilledLive meetup on why and how to think “online first” in 2014. Focusing on what an integrated marketing campaign can do for your business, how social, community, and content development supports that, and how to optimize for whichever point in the customer lifecycle you’re focusing on this year.

During a media studies course in college, one of our assignments was to count all of the advertisements we encountered throughout the day for an entire week. This was back in early 2005 when it was easy—shut off the TV, limit Internet usage, walk through the park on the way to class to avoid advertisements on busses.

But this was before bringing a laptop to class was what you did and about a year before my school, Portland State University, got access to Facebook (and we wouldn’t believe you if you told us that one day, our Facebook would be overrun by business brand posts and advertisements).

I can only imagine how high that number would be if I had to count how many advertisements I encounter every day.

Consumers are getting smart. We know when we’re being marketed to and, most often, we just want to be entertained. Looking towards 2014, here are 10 ways things to focus on to make sure that the stories you craft online for your brand this year are seen as stories and not ads that students will try ignoring for a class assignment. (more…)

There’s a trend going around and it’s one that I’ve had the fortune and misfortune of being on both sides of the table. It’s the one that’s illustrated above and if you aren’t like those bunnies that did it intentionally, it can be embarrassing or infuriating when someone calls you out on it.

I’m talking about mistakes. Not the ones that you make quietly and no one but your inner critic notices, but BIG and little mistakes that everyone notices and brags loudly in a public forum.

And what really sucks about the state of the Internet is when we see things as small as a misspelled word or as large as an inappropriately timed tweet, we’re are so ready to jump out and publicly declare it to be a fail.

Mistake #1: Grammatical Errors

There are two sides to this story – the first is a grammatical mistake. Those are simple errors that anyone can make and can be solved with a simple, private email that points out the error in the same way as a good public servant would.

An editor is motivated by one thing and that is saving and protecting the English language. Grammatical mistakes and misspellings are black and white. Those things have rules that should be kept and rules that should be broken. And if you see one happen, be a decent person and send an email or a private message to the person who made the error instead of calling them out publicly.

Mistake #2: Social Media Fails

But then there are the larger missteps that are usually labeled as “social media fails.” These are the tweets, Facebook posts, and blog posts written by people who apparently don’t “get it” and the mistakes they make are at the expense of the brand they represent. The innocent fails like Red Cross getting slizzard or Discovery Channel’s long commute are usually powered by an overworked, multitasking social media manager who forgot which profile they were logged-in as.

Then there are the epic fails that are usually the result of a team executing a strategy that is restricted by corporate policies that came before the brand started playing in social media. And as a result, the repercussions from those kinds of fails can be detrimental to the brand.

Why do we like to point out other people’s mistakes?

Mistakes in social media happen very publicly, painfully, and usually before anyone can get the resources they need to handle it “correctly” before the crisis spreads like wildfire. I’d say that social media fails spread faster than social media successes.

I understand why editors have the desire and need to point out grammatical errors, but what about the rest of the population who are quick to call something a fail and label it as a mistake? What motivates them?

There comes a time in every bloggers life when then come out from behind the computer and take the stage and become a speaker. That time came for me last weekend when I presented at WordCamp Seattle. I’ve been on panels before, but this was the first time that I actually took the stage and shared my own ideas solo.

WordCamp is a locally organized conference that covers everything related to WordPress with sessions ranging from basic WordPress tips to very advanced development tricks. This was my first time attending and speaking at WordCamp, so I had no idea what to expect. But what I discovered was 300 people who were all very passionate about using the WordPress publishing platform to get their ideas out there, which makes for a very friendly community.

Slides: How to Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul

My talk was in the afternoon and in one of the smallest rooms. But even so, I counted somewhere between 60 and 70 people while I cleared my throat and anxiously waited for when I was supposed to start.

My talk was called, “How to Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul.” It offered an overview of why you should build a community for your blog before you need to promote your blog and a checklist for how to get the word out about a post after you publish.

I came up with the idea for this topic after knowing a bunch of bloggers who write really amazing posts but are horrible at marketing themselves. Usually it’s because people who have a blog are writers, not marketers. And while marketing is a skill, a lot of it is a process that you repeat and iterate on as you go. Plus a lot of this methodology comes from what I’ve learned running and promoting my own blog and that of my employers (current and former).

After responding to all of the sweet, awesome, and thoughtful messages my friends left for me on Facebook last year, I had this wild idea – what if you woke up on your birthday, logged onto Facebook, and no one left any birthday messages for you?

That would be the worst birthday ever, right?

As I learned from my parents when I was younger, if you have a bad dream, tell someone about it so that it won’t come true.

Thank you to my amazing husband, John Kimball, who drew this comic and helped me bring this concept to life.

Sunday Serial is a semi-regularly weekly installment of the best articles written and read around the Internet during the past week or so. I try to introduce each article so you know what you’re getting in to before you click, though sometimes my synthesis goes a little bit deep. You can read previous Sunday Serials here.

Read this because: I’m a fan of brevity, and you should be too. As George Orwell said, never use a ten-dollar word when a five-dollar one will do. Whether that’s in every day speech or in your writing.

Read this because: You’re on a path few have traveled. You are ready to shake things up, you’re ready to say “I quit,” but uncertainty is holding you back. Here are some great lessons to move you away from “un” and closer to “certain.”

Read this because: Last month, recruiters and hiring managers starting asking candidates for their passwords to their personal Facebook accounts. Why? So they could do a more thorough background check on the candidate’s personal life.

Read this because: It’s no secret that I come from the book publishing world, so the advent of blogs, eBooks, online publishing, etc., anyone can be “published” and the assets that the old book publishing world used to bring to the table are no longer valuable. Digitization has killed this industry and turned it into a button. And I’m left wondering, would it have been better to be outsourced to China or replaced by a machine than a button?

But there’s hope – yes, the industry is dead. The mystery, allure, and “secret sauce” of what makes a best seller still exist, but the tools for production and sales channels are accessible to all. It’s not so much that publishing needs to disappear, but pivot. Instead of being the “process of distribution,” become the services that authors need – editorial, marketing, access to readers, and design.